Agricultural Revolution

The Agricultural Revolution occurred between the 18th and 19th centuries in the United States and the United Kingdom. It was a period marked by rapid advancements in agricultural productivity and developments in farming technology—the most influential of these changes involved the mechanization of farm work, the introduction of four-year crop rotation farming, selective breeding of livestock, and the enclosure of land. These developments in the agricultural industry also corresponded with and were important to the rise of the Industrial Revolution.

For the first time enough food was available to people living in the cities. More food also led to a decline food prices providing people with more income to buy other consumer goods. An abundance in food meant a healthier population. Death rates began to fall especially among infants. In the U.K. the population exploded from 5 to 10 million by the end of the 18th century.^[1] Many peasants, turned off the land through enclosure, supplied a ready workforce for employment in the cities factories. In the U.K. as well, the implementation of better agricultural practices and techniques led to a greater surplus of wool at a lower cost for the textile industry.

[edit] History

[edit] Enclosure

Agricultural practices and developments virtually stayed the same from the 8th century to the 18th century. During the Middle Ages land was granted to peasants by a landowner. The landowner would provide the land for each peasant to grow the food they needed for subsistence and in exchange, peasants would pledge allegiance to the landowner. Each peasant was usually assigned up to 30 strips of land—around 12 hectares—divided between three large open fields.^[2] A three-year strip crop rotation was used to cultivate crops such as wheat and barley into two of three fields with the third field being left fallow. This type of shared “open-field” system not only produced wasted, unused land every four years but resulted in the spread of animal disease and uncontrolled breeding.

Land reform in the United Kingdom of common village fields into enclosed individual land holdings was the direct result of improved farming techniques from 1700 to 1845 in. Land started being enclosed as early as the 15th century. Nobleman, short of money, also began selling their land. Under the reign of Henry VIII, land belonging to monasteries, were seized and sold. Growth in England's wool trade required the enclosure of land to graze sheep. The Church attempted to denounce the practice of enclosure by the 16th and 17th centuries and even drew up legislation against it.^[3] However such action was thwarted by the mechanization of farm work that demanded larger areas of land be cultivated.

Enclosure literally meant that fields were enclosed by a fence. Most fields were enclosed by way of agreement but eventually parliamentary reform led to the reorganization of land through enclosure. The advantage of enclosed land was the ability of landowners to have complete control to farm entire enclosed fields. This led to the growth of larger farms and increased agricultural productivity. One of the criticisms of enclosure was that many peasants were turned off the land and left homeless with no income. Some were forced to beg and others fled to the cities to find work. In 1801 the government introduced a series of acts called the General Inclosure Act which sanctioned large scale land reform.^[4]By the end of the 18th century the process of enclosure in England was largely complete—about 600,000 acres of land in the UK had been enclosed.^[5]

[edit] Four-Crop Rotation Method

Another significant development was the switch from a three-year crop rotation cycle to the four-field or four-crop rotation system. The person credited for developing this new method of crop rotation was Viscount Townshend of Raynham on his Norfolk farm. Viscount Townshend, a politician, retired in 1730 to work the land on his estate.^[6]

Townshend came up with the ingenious idea of planting crops on four different fields on his estate and then rotating the crops in each field each year. In the first field, he grew wheat, clover or rye grass in the second, oats or barley in the third, and turnips and swedes in the fourth. Such a system had already been devised and used by farmers in Holland.^[7] The cultivation of clover and grass was used for livestock grazing. Livestock could now be fed turnips through the wintertime. Townshend proved that under his system, more crops could be grown enabling a better yield from the land.

Another benefit of the four-field system was it provided an opportunity for the land to be rested. This improved the nutrient content of the soil allowing different crops to be planted in different fields throughout the year rather than leaving land unused and fallow. The growth of turnips and other root vegetable as wintertime feed also led to an increase in the livestock population on farms. More animals naturally created more manure that could be used to fertilize the soil and improve its nutrient content. By the early 19th century many farmers had fully adopted the four-field crop rotation system.

During the 17th to 18th centuries, new crops from Europe such as clover, alfalfa, small grains, and fruits and vegetables were also introduced to the U.S.^[8]

[edit] Mechanization

New types of farming equipment were introduced in both the United Kingdom and in the United States during the Agricultural Revolution and continued to evolve throughout. The first two key inventions that aided farmers was a seed drill and a threshing machine.

Seed drill – one of the earliest developments in agricultural technology was the invention of the seed drill by Jethro Tull in 1701. His mechanical seed drill enabled seeds to be evenly distributed more efficiently over a field. It involved a horse-drawn wheeled device that consisted of rotating drills and runners that would plant seeds at a depth. There was a wheel driven ratchet that sprayed the seed out over the ground. Before Tull’s seed drill, most planting was done by hand by carrying seeds in bags and broadcasting the seed onto onto ploughed and harrowed ground. Tull's drill was not very quickly adopted in England. Many were resistant to his ideas. In 1714 he perfected both his system and machinery. He learned that by pulverizing the soil between each strip or row, essentially believing this released nutrients in the soil serving as a replacement for manure. His methods proved successful for he was able to plant wheat in the same field for 13 successive years.^[9] His seed drill was later improved with the addition of gears to the distribution mechanism—the rotary mechanism of the drill provided the foundation for all future sowing technology.^[10] He also invented a horse-drawn hoe that included a plow with blades set in such a manner that grass and roots were pulled up out of the earth and left to dry on the surface. In 1731 Tull published a book, 'The New Horse Hoeing Husbandry' detailing his agricultural methods and equipment.^[11]

Reaper - the reaper was developed as a tool for cutting grain. The sycthe was the earliest incarnation of a reaper introduced in Europe by the Romans. Many Europeans however used a sickle for the same task until limited labour forced people to use the scythe which was in comparison, more efficient. Eventually labour shortages in both the U.S. and Europe led farmers to develop less time-consuming methods for harvesting crops with new tools. The first successful reaper was invented by a man named Rev. Patrick Bell during the ealt 1800s. His horse-drawn reaper, designed with shears that cut the wheat in front, was able to cut ten acres of wheat per day.^[12] The most widely used early reaper was invented by Cyrus H. McCormick. It was widely accepted in both the US and England though the rest of Europe was slower to adopt. In 1877, McCormick started mass-producing reapers that could reap and bound sheaves.^[13]

Plow (Plough) – was developed as a farm tool with one ore more have blades that was used to break up the soil and cut a small ditch called a furrow for sowing seeds. The self-polishing cast steel plow was invented by John Deere. It marked a substantial improvement over the iron plough.

Moldboard – was a wedge formed by the curved part of a steel plow that turns the furrow.

[edit] Selective Breeding

From 1700 to 1770 farmers started experimenting with selective breeding as a result better quality and higher yield harvests. Most cattle or sheep that were once slaughtered before wintertime were feed turnip fodder through the wintertime. The number of animals on farms began to increase providing an opportunity to experiment with selective breeding.

Livestock experts such as Robert Bakewell and Thomas Coke were the first to introduce selective breeding programs to improve the quality of their livestock. Bakewell was the most prolific in selective breeding techniques. He crossed different breeds of sheep based on their best characteristics. Called “breeding in and in,” his selective breeding experiments led to new breeds of sheep. He was also the first farmer to breed both sheep and cattle for their meat value. Bakewell even kept very elaborate genealogical records of his most prized animals. Near the end of the 18th century selective breeding practices had evolved increasing the market value of livestock.^[14] Bakewell’s principles in particular for stock breeding were widely followed.^[15]

[edit] Timeline

• 1700 – American farmers near water develop some cash crops for trade. Inland farming focused on subsistence. Farmers in the Northern U.S. produce variety of crops and livestock. Southern plantation farms concentrate on export crops. Individual settlers receive small land grants. Large tracts of land granted to well-established colonists. Oxen and horses are used for power.
• 1701 – Jethro Tull invents the seed drill and a horse-drawn hoe
• 1721 – Broccoli introduced as a new crop to England.
• 1730 – Good weather brings bountiful harvests for next ten years. Charles Townshend, of England uses Four Year Crop Rotation from Holland on his Norfolk estate
• 1730 – Joseph Foljambe’s Rotherham iron plough to have first commercial success in Europe
• 1731 – Tull publishes his book Horse Hoeing Husbandry (later revised in 1733)
• 1755 – Robert Bakewell produces Leicester sheep through selective breeding methods
• 1760 – Agricultural influenced by enclosure of land and other new innovations
• 1766 – Henry Cavendish experiments with electric charges to turn nitrogen gas into nitrate salts. Experiments would be of great importance in the future production of artificial fertilizer
• 1769 – Bakewell breeds Longhorn cattle through selective breeding
• 1770 – Potatoes grown to be sold for the first time in England
• 1772 – Thomas Coke begins experiments in selective breeding
• 1780 – Better and improved agricultural methods take effect across England. The rest of Europe still mainly practicing medieval farming techniques
• 1782 – Jethro Tull improves his seed drill with the addition of gears to the rotary mechanism
• 1783 – England’s first plough manufacturing factory opens.
• 1784 – Invention of iron plough
• 1786 – Andrew Meikle, a Scottish engineer, develops threshing machine
• 1793 – Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin in the U.S.
• 1794 – Thomas Jefferson’s plow with moldboard of least resistance tested
• 1796 – Public Land Act in the U.S. authorizes Federal land sales to the public in minimum 640-acre plots at $2 per acre of credit.
• 1797 – Charles Newbold patents first cast-iron plow
• 1831 – Cyrus McCormick invents the first commercially successful horse-drawn reaper for harvesting wheat
• 1837 – John Deere develops and manufacturers the first commercially successful cast-steel plow
• 1831 – 1860s – John Fowler pioneers the use of engines for plowing and drainage channels
• 1879 – Anna Baldwin patents a milking machine—a vacuum device connected to a hand pump—to replace hand milking. Invention receives a patent but not commercially successful. More successful devices later emerge and in the last half of the 19th century over 100 milking devices receive patents in the U.S.
• 1842 – The first grain elevator is built by Joseph Dart in the U.S.
• 1850 – Edward Quincy invents the corn picker

[edit] References

1. ↑ The Importance of the Agricultural to the Industrial Revolution. The Open Door Web Site. 20-07-2009.
2. ↑ The Agricultural Revolution. The Open Door Web Site. 20-07-09.
3. ↑ The Agricultural Revolution. Answers.com. 20-07-09.
4. ↑ Agricultural Revolution. Answers.com. 20-07-09.
5. ↑ The Agricultural Revolution. The Open Door Web Site. 20-07-09.
6. ↑ The Agricultural Revolution. The Open Door Web Site. 20-07-09.
7. ↑ The Agricultural Revolution. The Open Door Web Site. 20-07-09.
8. ↑ A History of American Agriculture. The Story of American Agriculture. 20-07-09.
9. ↑ Jethro Tull. Historic Figures. BBC History. 20-07-09.
10. ↑ The Seed Drill. The Open Door Web Site. 20-07-09.
11. ↑ Jethro Tull. Historic Figures. BBC History. 20-07-09.
12. ↑ History Link 101. 21-07-09.
13. ↑ History Link 101. 21-07-09.
14. ↑ Improvements in Farming in the 18th century. The Open Door Web Site. 20-07-09.
15. ↑ Agricultural Revolution. Innovation of the Industrial Revolution. 20-07-09.